In the real world, what we in the Tolkien fandom call the primary world, Orcs are not a race. They’re a mindset, an ideology, the basest outlook of humanity. Tolkien certainly thought so.
(more…)Tag: middle-earth
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Continuing the theme of talking about the good things in life . . .
This is just a short post mostly to redirect folks to this awesome and insightful new article in the “Overlooked No Mere” series in The New York Times—which I’d never heard about before. It doesn’t appear behind a paywall, either. I guess that makes sense, since it’s an obituary series. Anyway, it’s this one:
Overlooked No More: Karen Wynn Fonstad, Who Mapped Tolkien’s Middle-earth
And here’s my quick followup opinion.
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Go not to me for true film criticism, for I will say both “It was great!” and “It wasn’t that great” about almost anything. Almost.
But! It’s 2024, and I got to take my family to see a Lord of the Rings film in December just as it premiered. That felt . . . good, and a tiny bit nostalgic. I still have more enthusiasm in me than disappointment, and as always, more Tolkien is better than less Tolkien. Even poorly made Tolkien adaptations (which this wasn’t) is an excuse to talk about Tolkien . . .
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I aim to talk more about the good things in life here.
Today I’m going to talk just a little bit about artists Tim and Greg Hildebrandt, though I don’t honestly know much about them—that is, beyond this wonderful interview the hosts of The Prancing Pony Podcast had with Greg Hildebrandt a few years ago. Mostly I’d just like to share some of MY favorite paintings from their vast body of work. Tim passed away in 2006 and his brother, Greg, sadly passed away one month ago.
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What did Sauron look like, really? What’s his deal? Was he ever a flaming eyeball on top of a tower? Probably not. Was he a creepy-as-hell humanoid with nine black fingers when he tortured Gollum? Yes. Was he a big guy in spiky black armor when he fought Gil-galad and Elendil on the slopes of Mt. Doom? Possibly. Was he a friendly Elvish-looking mentor when he was “cozening” the Elf-smiths of Eregion? Almost certainly.
He can, in theory, be all of the above. How about a handsome actor like Charlie Vickers? Or a, ummm, Jack Lowden? Apparently!
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Foreshadowed and Foresung 